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i saw Ellis Amdur put on a shihonage to an very short uke, much shorter than him. i thought Ellis would need to get down on his stomach to do it, but he just did it. it was the smoothest shihonage that i had seen. most folks do shihonage with uke's arm stretch out or up or side way or in every direction, but Ellis's approach is like getting uke to do an arm curl. doesn't raise uke's alarm until the very end. there is also a spanking waza for stiffed back uke.

Thanks Phi, trying to visualize that (not the spanking, not right now)

We're taught to try to keep hands in front of face the whole way like we're taking a panoramic photo and not give the arm back to them (to stop them turning out), I guess I could try to float her more and snap turn on the balls of my feet quicker but it just feels wrong if my hands get anywhere above or behind my head

How do you pull off shihonage on someone much shorter than you without a nice deep jigotai or switching to suwari waza? My wife and I have a 16" height difference so I get stuck with this a lot

Cheers

Paul

Dear Paul,
What a lucky guy you are! A missus 16inches taller than you arel.I guess you could say you look up to her.My wife always looks down on me.
Why would you want to do shiho nage in this situation?Why not just do a waza more appropriate to the situation?cheers, Joe.

Dear Paul,
What a lucky guy you are! A missus 16inches taller than you arel.I guess you could say you look up to her.My wife always looks down on me.
Why would you want to do shiho nage in this situation?Why not just do a waza more appropriate to the situation?cheers, Joe.

kata Joe, kata, the root of so many woes, there's only so long I can get away with avoiding her on the mat

to be honest I think it just amuses the powers that be to see me making an arse of myself, it's a gift that just keeps on giving

How do you pull off shihonage on someone much shorter than you without a nice deep jigotai or switching to suwari waza? My wife and I have a 16" height difference so I get stuck with this a lot

Cheers

Paul

Best explanation I heard about this... Aikido locks are intended to be body locks, not appendage locks. So at some point, the joint lock of shiho nage should not be limited to the arm. Once this happens, we should not be limited to the mechanical requirements of creating torsion through a largely horizontal position of the arm. Once we don't have a need to squat under a horizontal arm that is more or less only as high at the shoulder of your partner... you have more freedom for your partner to move out of your way, rather than move around your partner. Without that desperate feeling that you are going to rip off your partner's arm. Not that you can't...

Best explanation I heard about this... Aikido locks are intended to be body locks, not appendage locks. So at some point, the joint lock of shiho nage should not be limited to the arm. Once this happens, we should not be limited to the mechanical requirements of creating torsion through a largely horizontal position of the arm. Once we don't have a need to squat under a horizontal arm that is more or less only as high at the shoulder of your partner... you have more freedom for your partner to move out of your way, rather than move around your partner. Without that desperate feeling that you are going to rip off your partner's arm. Not that you can't...

Having struggled with shihonage for a long time, a few years ago I discovered a couple of essential things about this technique. First of all, if you have to resort to ducking under your partner's arm you have basically lost by that point. The whole technique becomes a lot easier and safer if you manipulate your partner's body before then, so that their elbow rises over your head (I like to think of the image of uke's arm making a kind of pitched roof over your head). More recently, I realised that most of shihonage is generated in the initial contact - if you get this right, this weakens your partner's frame and posture so that everything from that point follows almost effortlessly. Kanetsuka Sensei always says "attack partner's knees": when he does this to me at the start of the technique, I feel my feet become uprooted, and there is no chance to counter the technique at all.

This also, of course, helps to even out any adverse height difference between you and your partner (though I do still occasionally struggle in extreme cases!).